


"Holiday"

by heckinmeka



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Death, Gen, Necromancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26124865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heckinmeka/pseuds/heckinmeka
Summary: Veska and one of her "friends" are out for a nice evening stroll when they stumble upon a...surprise gift.
Kudos: 1





	"Holiday"

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 2019-08-23, crossposted from its original home on Tumblr. Done as part of a randomizer exercise - randomly-generated one-word prompt, randomly-selected character, maybe shuffle a track from a game OST for ambience. Should it interest you, ambience for this one is "Lost In The Misty Woods" from the Ori and the Blind Forest OST.

With a single swift movement, the sparkfly’s wings were liberated from its body, the remains unceremoniously dropped on the ground and forgotten. Raising the translucent membranes up to the sky, Veska inspected them for quality. Nodding sagely, she secured them in one of the myriad packs on her robes and continued on. The faintest flick of a claw stirred a small shape into action - darting out of the shadow of a fallen log, it scurried to where the sparkfly’s wingless body lay, twitching in its death throes. From somewhere within the shape a mouth opened, closing around the insect slowly then snapping closed with a hearty crunch. Shivering, it let out a delighted squeak and rushed after its master, tangling itself around her feet before tearing off into the foggy swamp once more.

A few similar stops later saw Veska’s packs laden with materials, and her skittering friend a few sizes larger and sporting a few more limbs than when they had begun. She paused in her usual spot at the edge of the swamp, taking a quick measure of the darkened path beyond, and was surprised by the sound of gruff voices coming from the direction she’d intended to go. Crouching low to keep out of sight, she spied a trio of shapes approaching within the fog. Squinting as they approached, she could just make out their armor - Iron Legion. There were never any patrols at this time of night, so she had to assume they were merely travelers and wouldn’t be any kind of nuisance. Nevertheless, she slunk a few feet back into the trees and dropped to the soggy ground to await their passing. It wasn’t until their shadows fell into her line of sight that she realized she hadn’t given the command to her companion, who was idly licking a stray paw in plain view of the approaching charr. 

A loud curse from one of the charr let her know that it had been spotted. Startled, what could be roughly described as its head snapped towards the onlookers as it emitted a sharp hiss. Before she could issue any kind of command to stand down a pistol was drawn, fired, and misfired, sending the creature into a panicked frenzy as the bullet embedded itself into the sludge near its assorted feet. Launching itself from the darkness with a shrill screech, it landed squarely on the assailant’s chest and began slashing upwards towards their face. Horrified, the charr’s companions attempted to pry the creature off, but could find no purchase amidst the flailing limbs and uncomfortably loose, swamp-bloated skin. The struggle lasted only a few seconds before a powerful claw lashed out from the fleshy mass in just the right way, slashing across the charr’s unarmored throat and quickly turning their panicked shouts into bloody gurgles. Finally realizing the severity of the situation, the other two drew their own weapons, but shaky hands saw misfired shots yet again, this time finding purchase within their gasping friend and dropping them to the ground, hard. The scene seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second, until the shock wore off and the remaining duo staggered backwards, grabbing at each other frantically as they turned tail and vanished back into the fog the way they had come.

Veska sighed and rose from her spot in the shadows, pushing her mask up and back with one hand as she stepped out onto the road. The lifeless body of the charr rocked back and forth slightly with the shivering weight of her unruly minion. She tried to locate where its head was but had little success considering it was rapidly growing and rearranging itself before her eyes. Exasperated, she made a single sharp  _ tssk  _ noise between her teeth, and a bloody head sporting the beginnings of another new mouth as well as a set of horns rose up from a hole in the torso.

“Come on now,” she said, her voice curt. “You know this isn’t the place for that. Get out of there, you little monster.”

With a long low whine, the creature rose up on two stout new legs and stepped clear of the body, looking back at it longingly before turning several sets of pleading eyes on its master.

Veska sighed. “You don’t have to beg.” She crouched down to inspect what remained of the body’s internal organs. “I just wish you’d left a few more useful bits behind this time.”

A single self-satisfied chirp was all she got in response before thick, talon-tipped arms reached under the shoulders of the body, hefting it up and into a carrying position with enough force that she was surprised the lower half stayed connected. She nodded and quickly shoved her hand into the bloodied dirt of the path, placing a few big scoops of it into one of her last empty pouches and returning to the edge of the trees once more.

“Guess we can’t go back the usual way for a while,” She noted, squinting down the path with a calculating expression. “But it’s been so long since we’ve had a big one, and we’ve still got all night...” She grinned, and stepped back into the swamp with newfound vigor. “So, let’s get started.”


End file.
